United States occupation of the Dominican Republic (1965–66)

Dominican Civil War
Part of the Cold War
US soldiers push a child underneath a Jeep to protect him during a firefight in Santo Domingo on May 5, 1965.
Date April 24 – September 3, 1965 Location Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Result Loyalist victory* Election of Joaquín Balaguer into Presidency
Belligerents
Dominican Republic (Loyalist faction)  United States Inter-American Peace Force  Brazil  Paraguay  Nicaragua  Costa Rica  El Salvador  Honduras	Dominican Republic (Constitutionalist faction)
Commanders and leaders
Elías Wessin y Wessin Lyndon B. Johnson Bruce Palmer	Francisco Caamaño
Strength
Loyalists: 2,200 regulars 12 AMX-13 light tanks 24 L-60 light tanks 13 Lynx armored cars	Constitutionalists: 1,500 regulars 5,000 armed civilians
Casualties and losses
44 dead, 283 wounded 11 WIA	2,825 dead

The Dominican Civil War (Spanish: Guerra Civil Dominicana) took place between April 24, 1965, and September 3, 1965, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. It started when civilian and military supporters of constitutionally elected former President Juan Bosch overthrew acting President Donald Reid Cabral. The coup prompted General Elías Wessin y Wessin to organise elements of the military loyal to President Reid, known as loyalists, initiating an armed campaign against the so-called constitutionalist rebels. Allegations of foreign support for the rebels led to a US military intervention in the conflict, which later transformed into an Organization of American States occupation of the country. Elections were held in 1966, in the aftermath of which Joaquín Balaguer was elected into the presidential seat. Later in the same year international troops departed from the country.

On 19 November 1911, General Luis Tejera led a group of conspirators in an ambush on the horse-drawn carriage of Dominican President Ramón Cáceres. During the shootout, Cáceres was killed and Tejera wounded in the leg. In the ensuing power vacuum, General Alfredo Victoria, commander of the army, seized control and forced the Congress to elect his uncle, Eladio Victoria, as the new president. The general was widely suspected of bribing the Congress, and his uncle, who took office on 27 February 1912, lacked legitimacy. The former president Horacio Vásquez soon returned from exile to lead his followers, the horacistas, in a popular uprising against the new government.

The result was several years of great political instability and civil war. U.S. mediation by the William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson administrations achieved only a short respite each time. A political deadlock in 1914 was broken after an ultimatum by Wilson telling Dominicans to choose a president or see the U.S. impose one. A provisional president was chosen, and later the same year relatively free elections put former president (1899–1902) Juan Isidro Jimenes Pereyra back in power. To achieve a more broadly supported government, Jimenes named opposition individuals to his Cabinet. But this brought no peace and, with his former Secretary of War Desiderio Arias maneuvering to depose him and despite a U.S. offer of military aid against Arias, Jimenes resigned on May 7, 1916.

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